I Interview Playwrights Part 534: Stephen Spotswood

Stephen Spotswood

Hometown: North East, MD (it's not a compass point; it's the name of an actual town)

Current Town: Washington, D.C.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I have a tendency to work on multiple projects at once so, in an effort to keep myself from rambling, I'm going to keep this to work I'm doing on the actual day I filled out this interview (Nov. 27th--happy birthday to me!). I spent the morning working on a short play for the HeyDay Players--a troupe of senior citizens who take classes at Round House Theatre's Education Center and tour readings of short plays to nearby nursing homes and senior centers. I've been lucky to write for them for three years now, and it's a joy to write for an age group that you rarely see on stage.

I'll be spending the first half of the afternoon at Woolly Mammoth Theatre recording a podcast play I was commissioned to write for the National New Play Network's Showcase which, in my timestream, is this coming weekend. I'm one of four D.C. playwrights commissioned by NNPN to craft short audio plays that people will listen to on iPods as they walk in one of four directions from the theatre. My play will be taking folks South to the National Mall. The Washington Monument? Best set piece ever.

And this evening, prior to celebrating my 35th, I'll be (hopefully) finishing the tweaks on new marketing art for WE TIRESIAS, which won Best Drama at the 2012 Capital Fringe, and is being remounted courtesy of Forum Theatre.

Then there will be drinking.

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  When I was a kid I used to go to church with my parents on Sunday evening services. When it let out, I would run right to the car to turn on the radio, because on Sunday evenings 1210 AM ran recordings of old radio shows. So while my parents were talking with their friends in the church parking lot, I was sitting in a dark car, radio glowing, listening to stories of The Shadow, Jack Benny, The Green Hornet, The Outer Limits, etc. Does this explain me as a writer or a person? Not entirely. But a lot of my work is heavily narrative, with as much direct storytelling as dialogue. And the topic of religion and people coming to terms with/struggling against it comes up more times than I can count.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  I would take everyone’s definition of theatre (even my own), throw it in an oil barrel, and set it on fire.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  A lot of my theatrical heroes create work at that intersection of traditional theatre, music, performance, and storytelling. Amanda Palmer, Taylor Mac, Mike Daisey and Eric Ehn to name a few.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love theatre that takes chances—where actors, writers, designers, whole companies are trying things they don’t know they’re capable of. Punching above their weight class, so to speak. I like to walk out of a show not wanting to ever write another word because I could never do something that brilliant. And then, a few hours later, wanting to outdo it.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  See all the theatre you possibly can. Meet the people that make it—the actors, the directors, the designers, the other writers. Take them out for coffee or beer or wine or whiskey. Find out about them; tell them about yourself; see their work; show them yours if they ask. Write a play. Then write another one. Then write another one. And if you can’t find somebody to produce the first three, write a fourth and produce it yourself. Ask the other artists you’ve befriended to help. Invite everyone you know and everyone they know and as many strangers to come and see it. Then do it all over again. And if people like your work and like working with you, things begin to move of their own volition.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  WE TIRESIAS opens at Round House Silver Spring on January 3. It’s a story about the future and doomed love and old tragedies told from the point of view of a boy who becomes a woman who becomes the old, blind man destined to give Oedipus the bad news.

I Interview Playwrights Part 533: Erica Saleh

Erica Saleh

Hometown: Dryden, NY

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I'm deep into rewrites on a play I wrote earlier this year, The Morning After, about a young woman who is, rather suddenly, forced to confront the ways in which her politics and theory and feminism do or do not line up with her personal desires and private life. It's also very concerned with the semantics of the word rape, Austin Texas, and pop culture.

I'm also just starting work on a commission from Dramatics Magazine to write a play for a large cast of high schoolers, which is fun and messy and a really good antidote to wrestling with revisions and incessantly thinking about feminism and rape.

Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A: Ah. Ok. I usually claim that I wasn't really a theater kid, but then I remember this embarrassing story and wonder if I'm lying to myself about not having been a theater kid...

When I was in middle school my friends all suddenly revealed themselves to be really good athletes and decided that playing pick up basketball after school was a really fun thing to do. I, on the other hand, was scrawny and uncoordinated and thought playing basketball after school was significantly less fun than being in school. But I obviously played anyway, because that's what you do. One day the game wasn't going very well, I don't remember why or what that even means, I just remember everyone was frustrated. And one of the girls stopped and said "do you guys want to stop and make up plays?" And I got SO excited, and felt SO relieved, and blurted out "Yeah! Or like, dances or something?!" and everyone stared at me and I quickly realized that she had meant basketball plays, not play plays. And it was the kind of embarrassing moment that just sort of burns into your being because you've accidentally revealed yourself? The kind that you think about for months afterward and feel ashamed? And then don't think about for years because you were so embarrassed and then 17 years later remember and realize it's not actually embarrassing at all but a confirmation of the person you've become.

Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A: I would shift the dialogue between theatermakers to one of positivity. It is so easy to talk about what we don't like. It is so easy to say that things are unfair. And that's not wrong. There is inequity, there is unfairness, and it is, of course, worth talking about constructively and working to change. But there is also so much to be celebrated. There is so much that is exciting and fortunate and good about what we do. There is so much good theater being made. I would challenge all of us to talk about that. To go into plays with an open heart and and optimistic mind and look for things to admire and respect rather than things to criticize. I would challenge all of us to realize that we have picked a life that is difficult, but also a life that is awesome, and to remind ourselves and each other of why we do it. To call out the magic when we see it. And if we don't see it enough, to actively look for it, because it's there.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Caryl Churchill. Sara Kane. Gina Gionfriddo. Tennessee Williams. And all of my former teachers, but I want to specifically call out Daniel Alexander Jones for his beautiful work but also for his generous spirit and inspirational relationship with his art and community; and Sherry Kramer for her wonderful work but also for her humor and honesty and kindness. These two taught me not only how to be a better playwright but how to be a better person and community member.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Something that excites me about theater that excites me is that the only pattern I can find is that it excites me. Plays that have knocked me over in the past few years have been wildly different form one another. Some of these, in no particular order, were: Becky Shaw, Banana Bag and Bodice's Beowulf, Hand to God, Circle Mirror Transformation, The Select(The Sun Also Rises), The Whale, Milk Milk Lemonade, Rapture Blister Burn... I could keep going and going, see above about how there is SO much good theater being made. But the point is that these plays are all really really different form each other. That said, I think, the common thread that triggers the excitement for me, is that they are all honest, and in that honesty they are simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful. So I guess the short answer to what excites me is theater that breaks my heart but leaves me hopeful.

Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A: Be kind to yourself. Be honest in your work. Be generous to your community.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: Three Graces will be hosting reading of my play The Morning After at The Gin Mill on January 22nd, and I have a play in an evening of short plays written for teenagers (and written by a whole slew of awesome playwrights) at the 52nd street project in early February.

I Interview Playwrights Part 532: Mira Gibson

Photo credit: Benjamin Kosman

Mira Gibson

Hometown: Sanbornton, NH

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY


Q: What are you working on now?
A:  At the moment I have a few scripts in the works that center on foot fetishism. Head Over Heels, my latest play, is about a young woman desperate for fast cash. She is presented with an opportunity to be a “foot fetish model”. On her first day of work, she expects to show up at a club and have her work supervised by a bouncer. Instead, she arrives at a private residential studio apartment in the East Village where a 22 Korean-American student struggles through an English explanation of “always keeping a sharp object nearby” and “no foot-jobs”. There is no bouncer or protection of any kind, and she is left alone to navigate through the dark and often humorous underbelly of this very strange and psychological fetish. I’m writing this topic as a screenplay and TV show as well….yes, TV show…not my idea by the way, but I was encouraged so what the hell?

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  It’s no secret that I was sexually abused by my dad from about 5 years old to age 13. My dad is a textbook pedophile and is currently in prison for the abuse he inflicted on me. This trauma is absolutely the source of nearly 90% of my writing, especially since I often write about myself and the very tangled and specific mess I am left with. What am I supposed to do with all this? Writing helps me figure it out. And I feel extremely lucky that I have the courage to stand here and reveal myself. I give a voice to a lot of people who have had the same experience as me. Something astounding, which I think about often, is that often when I have a play reading, or production, or screening of my movie Warfield, at least one person from the audience has approached me afterwards to share that they are also a survivor. I try not to write bleak stories, however. So even though I write on this topic, often the soul of the story is about the hope and willingness to change, improve, and evolve into our best selves. I always wanted my dad to be a great father, and you know what, he did too. And as a kid I honestly saw him try, but he always failed. In my writing I give my dad a chance to succeed, and be the person I always deeply hoped he would be.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  Only two things: most importantly I would change the number of people it reaches. Theater, by the very art form that it is, is incredibly limited in the number of people that can see it, just from a geographical standpoint. I’ve actually have been getting into writing movies in large part because it can reach more people. The second I would change is its cost. I cannot tell you how much theater I opt not to see because it’s too costly. And then I have my dear friends who mention that with certain programs I can see a play for $35, sorry but that’s too much for me. I should mention, however, that I’m perpetually on the brink of extinction financially.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  The reason I write plays, and not books or poems or short werewolf novellas (which was my childhood dream by the way) is because a friend of my mothers handed me Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke the summer before I went to college. Reading that play stirred something in me that compelled me to focus on playwriting from that moment on. So I give huge credit to Williams. Another hero of mine is Paula Vogel, whose work I was introduced to in college. Reading How I Learned To Drive was a pivotal point for me because it showed me you can reveal yourself and it just might make you a better writer. Other heroes of mine are actually playwright peers and friends whose plays and even personalities inspire me on a daily basis. In lieu of listing them here, just check out anyone who’s ever been in Youngblood.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Dirty downtown theater, baby!

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  To keep writing. You want to write because you have something to say and that’s no accident. If people didn’t need to hear it, you wouldn’t want to say it. What you’re doing is important. And never, for one second, believe that rejection is an indication that what you’re writing doesn’t matter. It matters, and you matter.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Please check out my feature film, Warfield which was the pilot project of my new theater and film production company, Summer Smoke Productions (yes, named after the Tennessee Williams play) http://summersmokeproductions.squarespace.com/ In addition to screening at film festivals, I’ve started an initiative to distribute to prisons, registered sex offender rehabilitation programs, and to organizations that council survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

I Interview Playwrights Part 531: E. J. C. Calvert

E. J. C. Calvert

Hometown:  I was born in St. Louis, MO, and lived there long enough to form a couple foggy memories. Then I grew up primarily in Rochester, NY, with stints in Palo Alto and Pittsburgh, before returning to St. Louis for some of high school and undergrad. So... St. Louis, I guess, because that’s where I started drinking beer.

Current Town:  Chicago, Il. Come visit me, we’ll get tacos.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I’m currently writing for the upcoming web series Annie & Brie. It follows two women trying to survive their intermediate acting class, trying to navigate the city, and trying to be friends and roommates without throttling each other. It’s going to be a raucous good time; I’ve had a huge amount of fun writing these episodes.

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  So, I don’t want to say I was a bossy kid. It’s just that I’m the oldest of three siblings, and somebody needed to keep everyone on their marks and make sure they knew their lines by the time our parents and their friends finished their wine and were ready to leave. “Time for Brian and Danny to go home,” our parents call down to the basement.” I could hear the adults gathering car keys and putting on their coats. “WAIT!” Little Auteur Calvert shouts up the stairs, “Come downstairs, we have a play for you!”

I wonder if they had been bracing themselves for this announcement. It is commendable that I have no memory of hearing them groan as they came down the basement stairs to take their places in the row of child-size chairs I set out.

Our stage was an old mattress with a door laying on it, which gave our productions an air of seasickness. The exhausted adults perched uncomfortably, trying not to yawn too frequently as they watched their children pitch across the unsteady stage, reciting pun after impeccably-drilled pun.

So maybe I didn’t get the hint when my mom was flashing repeated “wrap-it-up” gestures. I promise that, since then, I’ve gotten better at receiving criticism. Plus, now I understand the joy of letting your audience drink their wine while they’re in their uncomfortable, child-size seats, instead of expecting them to finish drinking pre-show.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  It always comes down to money, doesn’t it? Theater folks do amazing things on shoestring budgets, but even with all our thrifty ingenuity, ticket prices can make shows inaccessible to potential audiences. Okay, everybody, one, two, three: group frown!

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  13P and Alfred Jarry.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I’m a big fan of nudity, violence, jokes and swears. I’m still on the fence about puns, though, and I have a uncontrollable eye-roll complex when it comes to extended scientific metaphors. I enjoy site-specific theater and theater in non-traditional spaces. I’ve gone to shows solely because critics panned them for being too pretentious, which probably says something unpleasant about me.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  Three things, in list form:

1.  Produce your own work. This will be hard and terrible, but that play isn’t doing you any good sitting on your hard drive. If your play isn’t on its feet, it’s just an improperly formatted, dialogue-heavy novel that no one will ever read.

2.  Whatever you do, write something you want to see. Then you can skip circles around sneering talk-back audiences, sing-songing “There’s no accounting for taste!” (Maybe don’t do that, though, nobody likes an asshole.)

3.  Don’t read any of these lists, it’ll give you a complex.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  I’m half of comedy-duo Lizanda, and we’re gearing up to perform the first NYC production of #1 Besties with Boy Trouble, a semi-scripted hour-long comedy that premiered at Chicago Fringe Festival this summer. We’ll be at The Creek and the Cave this Friday at 8 p.m.

Annie & Brie will be premiering in Spring 2013. facebook.com/annieandbrie

I Interview Playwrights Part 530: Nick Gandiello

Nick Gandiello

Hometown: Baldwin, NY. Long Island.

Current Town: Harlem.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I finished a first draft about a month ago, so now I'm in that weird place where I want to rush ahead with new ideas but should probably be a grown up and do a rewrite. To that end... I'm lucky to be participating in The New School for Drama's Alumni Project in February. We'll be doing a workshop and reading of my newest play, Black Fly Spring. It's about a young woman whose sister died on the job as a war photographer and how the aftermath affects her relationships and her views on the world.

I recently stepped into the role of Literary Manager of Young Playwrights Inc, and I'm looking forward to the readings of our National Competition winners in January. Those kids are inspiring.

And The Ars Nova Play Group's production of short plays goes up in January. We start rehearsing my play "Hip-Hop Documentaries" soon!

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  After my parents split up, I went to a child psychologist. I hope he was earning my parents' money; all I remember is playing with blocks and making a wood carving of an elephant in his shop. We brought my mom and brother in once and I played therapist and crossed my legs and rubbed my chin thoughtfully and asked them stuff like "and how does that make you feel?" It didn't go well. I remember crying and yelling "I had a shell! My shell is broken!" I was like six! I think I try really hard to empathize with others, sometimes to a fault, and to give others a chance to empathize, and a lot of times I think we all need to cry and acknowledge the shell. And I'm a psychology nerd.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  Money.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Sam Shepard, Caryl Churchill, Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Paula Vogel, Eugene O'Neill, William Shakespeare, Simon Stephens, Sophocles, Seneca.

I wouldn't have become a playwright or kept on writing plays without these people:
TJ Terranova, Kevin Harrington, Jack Hrkach, Jim Utz, Laura Maria Censabella, Chris Shinn, Pippin Parker, Michael Weller, Frank Pugliese, Erin Callahan.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm a catharsis junkie. I want to weep openly and laugh uncontrollably. I dig psychological complexity and moral ambiguity but as long as it feels honest and it moves me, I'm good. And I go nuts over theater that lets us confront the essential stuff that is most scary to deal with in our day-to-day: mortality, sex, identity, etc.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  I feel like I'm just starting out! But this is what I've been learning, for what it's worth:
As an artist, figure out how it is you can be most honest and embrace it. As a professional, cultivate gratitude and generosity. Writing is difficult enough, so don't punish yourself; try to eat well and sleep well. And get the pages done. Just get the pages done.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Check out the New Voices Festival at The New School for Drama this spring for writers you should know. And next spring too!

The readings at Young Playwrights Inc in January are going to fantastic.

Anything that happens at Ars Nova should be on your calendar. Come check out The Netflix Plays in January, and all the Out Loud readings!

Ready Set Go Theatre Company and Ugly Rhino Productions are two companies I like to talk up.

And if you need a snack, check out www.kettlecornnyc.com. The original is the most popular; spicy cheddar is my favorite.

Upcoming Shows--New York

1. First up, it's Hearts Like Fists at Flux Theater Ensemble Nov 30-Dec 15  This show had the best reviews of my life this summer in LA.  Now Flux is doing their version.  Rehearsals are going great.  Can't wait for you to see it.

directed by Kelly O’Donnell
Nov 30 – Dec 15, 2012
At The Secret Theatre

PURCHASE TICKETS AT: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/3012

THE STORY: Hearts Like Fists is a superhero noir comedy about the dangers of love. The city’s heart beats with fear: Doctor X is sneaking into apartments and injecting lovers with a lethal poison. Lisa’s heart beats with hope: now that she’s joined the elite Crimefighters, maybe she can live a life with meaning. And every beat of Peter’s wounded heart brings him closer to death, but he’s designing an artificial replacement that will never break. Can the Crimefighters stop Doctor X? Do Peter and Lisa have a chance at love? And who is the girl with a face like a plate?

Featuring: Becky Byers*, Aja Houston*, Rachael Hip-Flores, Jennifer Somers Kipley, Susan Louise O’Connor*, Chester Poon, August Schulenburg, Marnie Schulenburg*, Chinaza Uche*, and Chris Wight

Creative Team: Stage Manager - Jodi Witherell, Set Design - Will Lowry, Lighting Design - Kia Rogers, Costume Design - Stephanie Levin, Sound Design - Janie Bullard, Fight Director - Adam Swiderski, Assistant Fight Director - Rocío Mendez, Jennifer Somers Kipley - Assistant Director, Emily Owens, PR - Press Relations

FLUX THEATRE ENSEMBLE: http://www.fluxtheatre.org/hearts-like-fists/

The Secret Theatre
44-02 23rd Street
LIC, NY 11101
www.secrettheatre.com

2. Then it's a slightly tweaked version of the experimental movement piece UBU we did at SoloNOVA festival at TerraNOVA last year.  It sold really well so they put it in their season.

UBU
presented by

terraNOVA Collective, One-Eighth & IRT

Written by Adam Szymkowicz
Directed and Performed by Daniel Irizarry


December 4 -- 16 , Tuesday -- Sunday (Mondays dark) at 8:30pm
Ticket Price: $20.00 At IRT: 154 Christopher st. #3B (third floor)
-- Running time 1 hour.

Inspired by Ubu Roi, UBU is the King of the Great Expanding Universe who will allow a privileged few into his mansion to watch him eat steak. Along the way, he may play music, read you poetry and tell of his lost loves and purchased politicians – it all depends on the mood of the King. Join this kinetic romp through the absurdist world of the most powerful CEO in the universe.

Don't miss the relaunch of UBU, back from a successful run for the 2012 soloNOVA Arts Festival at the New Ohio Theater.

Martin Denton from nytheatre.com said it was:
“…a monster of mammoth size and ravenous appetite, sort of like the Tasmasian Devil on steroids by way of Monty Python's Mr. Creosote...”
http://www.nytheatre.com/Show/Review/ubu14508

And Olivia Jane Smith from New York Theatre review said:
‘…Irizarry’s singular stage presence and the productions beautifully grotesque little world make this…expanding universe worth a good look.’

Assistant Director Laura Butler Rivera
Marketing/ Associate Producer Homa Hynes
UBU Servants - Laura Butler Rivera, Shang-Ho Huang, & Homa Hynes
Scenic Design Mikiko Suzuki Macadams
Sound Design Marcelo Anez
Lighting Design Lucrecia Briceno
Puppets and Props Frankenstudio
Costume Design Marea Judilla and Edith Raw
Stage Manager Zina Goodall

Tickets:  http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/286935

See UBU's trailer at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvSO6tb_6J0

I Interview Playwrights Part 529: Tania Richard

Tania Richard

Hometown: Western Springs, IL.

Current Town: Evanston, IL.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A play called "Angry Black Woman" and a sister solo piece called "Angry Black Women" The plan is for them to debut in Evanston, IL. The solo piece will also tour.

Q:  How would you characterize the Chicago theater scene?

A:  It's a great city to start your career because of all the non-equity theaters that produce really solid work. This community also gives you room to reinvent yourself and have multiple careers. I am a writer, actress and teacher and I've had success in all three without having to leave Chicago.

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  I started writing short stories very early. By grade school I was already carrying a notebook with me everywhere. I'd write during class instead of paying attention. I use to draw comic strips about totally mundane things like a girl getting a hair cut. Making comic strips taught me about action in playwriting. Every box had to contain an event that moved the story forward.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  The lack of diversity in casting. As a black pIaywright some of my writing is race specific but a good deal of my writing doesn't require a specific ethnicity. In my cast descriptions I encourage non traditional casting to the point where I often write a character and specify that they are a minority even though their race has nothing to do with the character or the story. I want to see casts that reflect the diversity we see in the world. I would rather see diverse casts than "the all Black play" or the "all Asian play" It's time to stop segregating our theater.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Harvey Fierstein, Tony Kushner, Lanford Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry, Tennesee Williams. I fell in love with theatre by reading "Torch Song Trilogy" when I was in high school. I feel like Harvey Fierstein is my fairy godfather or something (no pun intended) Tony Kushner is brilliant and even though he is given his due for "Angels In America" I think people take his genius for granted. He is a master of marrying the personal and the political. If I could write like him I would be so in love with myself I'd never leave the house.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love theatre that has a mix of the theatrical, great language (which does not mean it has to be verbose) and strong relationships. Also, I love first and second act rock 'em sock 'em endings. August Wilson has some of the best final lines in all theatre. The ending of "Fences" on Broadway knocked me off my seat. The ending of "Angels In America" was jaw dropping. I love a great final line and the lights fading to black. Good clean fun.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  You have to allow yourself a lousy first draft. Take pleasure in how bad it is. Get all the muck out then start to revise. If you wait for the right time to have children you will never have children. If you wait to write a perfect first draft it will never get written so write crap and get on with it. Also, choose who gives you feedback wisely. Be protective of your plays. Don't seek approval or validation through the feedback you receive. If you choose the right people to give you feedback then there's no need to take what they say personally.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Currently appearing as Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol at The Goodman Theatre (an example of colorblind casting with a multiracial Cratchit family), my blog is http://trichard3.blogspot.com, my website is www.taniarichard.com

I Interview Playwrights Part 528: Lloyd Suh

Lloyd Suh

Hometown: Greenwood, Indiana

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  The most immediate thing chronologically is a play called JESUS IN INDIA that is going up in February with Ma-Yi Theatre Co at the Theatre at St. Clements. It was produced at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco earlier this year, and I'm doing some big retooling for this production. I also have a play for young audiences that was commissioned by Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis called THE WONG KIDS IN SPACE CHUPACABRA FREAK SHOW BATTLE GO! that I'm workshopping, and a play about an all-Asian country band that was initially developed in the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab that I'm working on with NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company). In the earlier stages is an EST Sloan commission that looks at the inventions of Benjamin Franklin as a sort of precursor to his invention of America.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  I like to think that any of us in fact CAN change lots of things about theater, though of course some things are harder to change than others. For me, the thing I spend most of my time and energy on has to do with just trying to make the lives of playwrights better. The challenges and obstacles that writers face are enormous and well-publicized elsewhere, and so for my day job (as a program director at the Lark Play Development Center), the work I do is about trying to provide resources - through artistic programs, community building, advocacy or financial support - that improve the type of livelihood that writers can expect to lead. At the risk of sounding sanctimonious about it, I also have to believe that what playwrights do is of incredible value to the world, as a way for us as a culture to explore what it is to be human in the way we live now, and create a conversation for a society to confront itself in the present tense. So by helping to change the way we assign value to the writers who generate that living conversation, and by enabling those voices - especially if it can be done with a multitude - is a way of changing the quality of the conversation that we're having in the world. Included in that, of course, are the big questions of who comes to see theater, who has access to it, and so there are a lot more specific things I'd like to change in that regard as well. On that level, I hope that I'm doing my part, because obviously we're all in this together.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Ralph Pena. Mia Katigbak. They started out at a time in American theater (heck, in America) when Asian Americans weren’t just grossly underrepresented, they were virtually invisible, and so when they built these companies like Ma-Yi and NAATCO to build on the movement started by East West Players and Pan Asian Rep, they were deciding that they would not only create their own opportunities (which they did) - they were also going to lay the foundation for subsequent generations of Asian American theater artists to have a permanent seat at the table. It’s really inspiring to me, and I feel really lucky to be able to count them as mentors, peers, collaborators and friends. They constantly remind me of some really huge things: that nobody's going to hand anyone anything, that we're individually capable of building our own opportunities, and that nothing we ever do is divorced from a larger community. The effect of that has been really palpable, and you still see Asian American theater artists starting from scratch and building their own companies, like what Welly Yang did with Second Generation, what Qui Nguyen did with Vampire Cowboys, what Young Jean Lee did with her company, and what this incredible generation of Asian American playwrights is doing every day. I feel like we’re in a really exciting and pivotal time in Asian American playwriting, where a great diversity of material is being generated, developed and produced; it feels like a movement, and my personal heroes of that movement are Ralph and Mia, who not only helped to build the infrastructure for it back in the day, but continue to be at the forefront of that work - as artists themselves, and as leaders who support those voices in visionary ways today.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I've always preferred ambitious failures over tidy successes. In general, I think of overreaching as a virtue and underreaching as a waste of time, so most of the time I like things that are really raw, uneasy, and difficult, but strive for something noble and complex - whether it's completely achieved or not. I tend to be allergic to "slick". I prefer theater that asks really difficult questions, rather than the kind which answers easier ones.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  I can't pretend to really know what might be useful to anyone else, but the best piece of advice I ever got for my own personal shit was in fact playwriting advice that has ultimately become really useful life advice as well. My playwriting teacher at Indiana University, the great Dennis Reardon, once said that when you sit down to write a play you should have absolutely everything entirely mapped out in your head - from beginning to middle to end, to know where you're going and how to get there, to understand what you want to say and what it all means - but that once you sit down to start writing, you should completely let go of all of it and absolutely under no circumstances follow that map. I think it's similar to the way actors work - they have an "objective", they prepare everything they need, including research, character work, an accent or something physical, but then once they're in the scene they let go of all that preparation, trust that they know what they're doing, and then try to be present and reactive to whatever happens organically. It's been useful to life in general in that it forces me to think about what I want, short-term and long-term, but also forces me to be ready to change my mind and be nimble enough to deal with whatever surprises might come along. Because a writer's life (or any freelancer's life, for that matter) can feel so random and shifting, and it's so easy to fall into the trap of being reactive to what presents itself, rather than focused on your own trajectory. So it's good to constantly be rigorous about what it is that you actually want, on a grand scale and a micro scale, so that when things happen to put you off course, you know how to get back to your shit.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Please come and see Ma-Yi's production of JESUS IN INDIA, directed by Daniella Topol at the Theater at St. Clements, February 13-March 10! ma-yitheatre.org

I Interview Playwrights Part 527: Robert Koon

Robert Koon

Hometown: I’m an Air Force brat, so this is a tough question. I was born in Harlingen, Texas, grew up mostly in central California, and there are also odd sprinklings of Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, and Oklahoma.



Current Town: Chicago. I’ve lived here longer than anywhere else, so that’s where I say I’m from.



Q: What are you working on now?

A: Rewrites of three plays (HOMECOMING 1972, CYCLIST ATTACKED BY MOUNTAIN LION, and THE GREEN COMMAND, plus notes on a new one. I’m also working on a fifth of Jameson’s.



Q: How would you characterize the Chicago theater scene?

A: Everyone uses the word “community,” and it’s the perfect word to use. People are conscious of being in a community, of how the success of the community benefits everyone. Companies work together, individual artists cross the boundaries of company affiliation fairly easily, people always go to see other people’s shows, relationships are tremendously important. I don’t know whether this is a product of the Chicago focus on the ensemble, or whether the focus on the ensemble is a natural product of working in a community, but people work together—fairly successfully for the most part. Which is really how it should be, and it’s always a surprise when I go somewhere else and find that it doesn’t really work that way all the time. Successful communities support each other, and Chicago’s community is pretty successful.



Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who
you are as a writer or as a person.

A: When I was a kid we moved a lot, every year it seemed, and it was difficult to feel a sense of belonging, of rootedness. And my grandmother would come visit and tell me stories of growing up in western Oklahoma in the time when it was still basically the frontier (pre-WW I), and even though that time was far removed from where we were I still felt connected to the time, rooted in the place, and part of those people. I think that’s still what drives me—the need to tell stories to find connection with the times, with a place, and with people.



Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A: That more people could get paid decently for their work, even if it means that fewer get paid exorbitantly. That people who deserve to have their work seen would have their work seen, regardless of gender, age, or ethnicity. That an ethic that says that the work is more important than the building was more widely held. That literary offices were not the first things to go when there are financial challenges. That informed and engaged criticism were the rule rather than the exception. OK, that’s five things, but if I have the power to change things about theater I’m not stopping at one thing.



Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: I don’t know what it means to have a hero, really, but whenever anyone asks me that question the name Horton Foote always comes to mind. Of course, there is a lot of other work I admire, by a lot of different people—writers, actors, directors—but I don’t know if I would attach the word “hero” to them. Of course, if you think of a hero as someone who has great visions and dares great things in the face of some pretty steep odds, then you can find heroes in any theatre anywhere. And I don’t care if that sounds like pandering—if the people around you don’t inspire you, you really need to start hanging around with new people.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Theatre that embraces a sense of the unpredictable. When a character in a play does something that seems 100% opposite to what you might expect, and yet you see that of course it was the only thing they could do, that’s a Wow moment for me. Then, anything can happen. I like ragged edges, I like knowing that it’s all happening in front of me and feeling like it’s the first time it ever happened and no one knows what’s coming next. People are unpredictable and contrary, and when characters are unpredictable and defy expectation—and it works—then that is tremendously exciting. Live performance lives more in the moments where it’s not perfect than where it is, and while we always try to get it right the gap between our ability to aspire and our ability to achieve is where the humanity comes into our work. Transcendence lives in that gap, and when we are able to make that leap, that’s amazing.


Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A: Hmmm…how about “Go slam your hand in a car door, because trying to live by using your fingers is just going to cause you pain and you might as well get used to it.” Maybe that’s not entirely inspiring or informative, though…

See lots of plays. Read. Write lots, even if you don’t think it’s good. Remember that when you stop trying to make everything perfect you have a much better chance of actually being good. Study acting—theatre is an actor’s medium, and the thing that gets an audience from “Lights up” to “End of play” is not our wit, or our poetry, or the great social themes we embrace, but rather the relationship they form with the people on stage. Giving characters things to do is more important than giving them things to say. Every writer hates their work at some point—do the work anyway. Finish your plays--the big difference between writers who get produced and writers who don’t is that writers who get produced finish their plays. Then they send them out—that is important, too. If you wait until it’s perfect, you’ll never get anything done.



Q: Plugs, please:

A: ODIN’S HORSE just closed in Seattle, so the next thing is HOMECOMING 1972, opening this spring at Chicago Dramatists.


I Interview Playwrights Part 526: Ron Hirsen

Ron Hirsen

Hometown: Chicago

Current town: Chicago

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:   I'm preparing to self-produce a play of mine in Chicago next year. The play, Elegy, has had readings in Chicago and New York and was produced in Philadelphia a number of years ago but has never had a production in Chicago. I am confident that there is an audience for this play here, and, to paraphrase the old saying, if you want something done-- at all, you have to do it yourself. So, here I go.

Q:  How would you characterize the Chicago theater scene?

A:  Theater people in Chicago are enormously generous and supportive of their fellow theater artists. We all want each other have the chance to do work, to get produced, to succeed and feel satisfied with our work. I don't think this goes on in quite the same way anywhere else, certainly not in New York or LA.

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  When I was a child, my mother would take my brother and me to the Goodman Children's Theater, which is now called Chicago Playworks at DePaul's Merle Reskin Theater. The productions featured students of what was then the Goodman School of Drama, and I thought they were wonderful. I remember Rip Van Winkle waking after years of slumber, Tom and Huck hiding under a bench as they attended their own funeral, and other delightful moments in the theater. The old Goodman Theater had a gold asbestos curtain, which remained lowered, masking the set behind it, until right before each performance was about to begin. Before the house lights would dim, the gold curtain would begin slowly to rise. I used to love to watch that curtain ascend ever so slowly and wait in eager anticipation to see what was behind it. That curiousity about what's about to take place has remained with me ever since. Whenever I am sitting in a theater waiting for a play to begin, the sense of the wondrous possibilities is palpable and exciting. I will never tire of it, and I try always to keep it in mind as I imagine and write plays.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  American theater needs vastly greater government subsidy. It costs way too much to see a play, theater artists struggle way too hard to earn even a modest living, and way too many worthy plays never see the light of day because no one will risk producing them when costs are so high.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Writers, mostly. Anton Chekhov because of his enormous compassion for his characters, Eugene O'Neill because of the magnitude of his vision and the depth of his emotion, Tom Stoppard because he's so damn smart, August Wilson because he completed such an ambitious cycle of plays (he could really write a scene, too), Arthur Miller because he wrote Death of a Salesman, and Tony Kushner because he wrote Angels in America.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater has to be intimate, human in scale, immediate and communal. The most exciting moments in the theater occur when everyone in the room, actors, musicians, audience, all think the same thought or feel the same passion at the same instant. When that instant occurs, it is most thrilling, inspiring, uplifting, and delightful. It doesn't happen often, but whenever it does, it renews my enthusiasm for the theater and makes me want to go see a play.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  Don't do it. If there is anything else in the world that can make you happy, do that instead. If not, read as many plays as you can, see as many plays as you can, and act.

Q:  Plug:

A:  Please keep your eye out for Elegy about a year from now, in a production directed by Victory Gardens Artistic Director Emeritus Dennis Zacek featuring a strong cast of accomplished Chicago actors. The play, about a Holocaust survivor and his son, will be presented as a Holocaust and survivor awareness program in part as a benefit for the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie. The production will coincide with the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the November Pogroms of 1938.

Those interested in supporting this enterprise can make tax-deductibe contributions to The Elegy Project, Inc. Just contact me by email: ronhirsen@gmail.com. Thank you.